Detachment – Spiritual Questhttp://www.spiritualquest.co.in
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http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/live-leave/#respondFri, 08 Apr 2011 13:37:52 +0000http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/?p=685While conversing with Vyaasadev about his previous life, Narada muni describes how after the demise of his mother, he started travelling alone. When his mother was alive, he was blessed with the association of sages, who pleased by his service had blessed him with transcendental knowledge and had left. In verse 1.6.13 he says

“I then passed alone through many forests of rushes, bamboo, reeds, sharp grass, weeds and caves, which were very difficult to go through alone. I visited deep, dark and dangerously fearful forests, which were the play yards of snakes, owls and jackals.“

In his wonderful purport to the above verse Srila Prabhupada explains that – “It is the duty of a mendicant, parivraajakaacaarya to experience all varieties of God’s creation by traveling alone through all forests, hills, towns, villages, etc., to gain faith in God and strength of mind as well as to enlighten the inhabitants with the message of God. A sannyaasi is duty-bound to take all these risks without fear.” He also further continues that, “In this age, devotional service of hearing and repeating the holy glories of the Lord is strongly recommended, and one who takes the vow of renunciation of family life need not imitate the parivrajakaacaarya like Narada or Lord Caitanya, but may sit down at some holy place and devote his whole time and energy to hear and repeatedly chant the holy scriptures left by the great acaryas like the six Gosvamis of Vrindavana.”

The word ekah in the above verse meaning -“alone” is worth meditating. Doing things together in the association of devotees gives lot of enthuse and energy. But real test for our sadhana is known when we are left alone. Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj used to say that our intensity of bhakti can be tested by how long we are able to sit alone with Bhagavatam. Gurudev being a Mahabhagavata himself had shown by his own personal example that even when there were trying situations, he was fixed in studying Srimad Bhagavatam for 12 to 14 hours in a day. He has painstakingly written so many notes and diaries of what all he studied as well. Gurudev has the habit of writing the place, date and time as well whenever he makes notes. When we were going through them, we were simply taken aback to see the different names of countries and the timings when Gurudev had been writing. Be it 2 am in the morning or 11:45 pm in the night, Gurudev had religiously taken notes of whatever he studied in his diaries. Not only did he study alone, but he has also travelled alone to different countries across the globe, in-spite of his old age and ailing health conditions and with great compassion broad casted the message of Srimad Bhagavatam to the suffering souls.

A child feels completely safe when he is under the protection of his parents. Similarly one is completely safe when he is under the protection of spiritual master. But the reality of life is that, we cannot always have the luxury of physical presence of either the parent or the spiritual master with us always. In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 10.49.21, Akrura says

“Every creature is born alone and dies alone, and alone one experiences the just rewards of his good and evil deeds.”

Whether we like it or not, we would be forced to travel alone in this world, which like the forest described by Narada muni, is dark dangerous place, with different kinds of living entities. But as Srila Prabhupada has mentioned in the first line of the purport to the above verse, Krishna is blessing us with such lone moments “to gain faith in God and strength of mind as well as to enlighten the inhabitants with the message of God.” So we need to make the best use of available time and energy in hearing and repeatedly chanting the glories of the holy scriptures which are gifted to us by Srila Prabhupada and Maharaj.

We pray at the lotus feet of Srila Gurudeva and Srila Prabhupada to grant us the resolve to stay fixed in devotional service in all circumstances.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das and Sudarshana devi dasi.

a) We are not taking shelter of the worthiest shelter Krishna as we don’t appreciate His transcendental Supreme Nature

b) Srila Prabhupada has mercifully helped us to know the transcendental glories of the Lord by translating Bhagavad Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam in English
c) We need to give up our lazy nature and immediately take up to study of Srila Prabhupada’s books.
d) Krishna and His words, Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam are non-different from Him and by getting in touch with Them our contaminated behaviour will be purified and once purity is there, Krishna will arrange everything else.

Now let us continue to hear more from Gurudev.

We have our responsibility because we are already in the material world. We have our work, we have our children and so on. All these are our responsibility. But there is a way to have shortcut to complete the responsibility. And that is through this purity. And that’s why the behavior pattern must be crystal clear. Crystal clear. Nobody should doubt us. And once you shut your eyes from that contamination then everything becomes very transcendental. And your responsibilities are taken care of. Once in Granthraj paper somebody had very nicely written – “You please surrender to Him and the rest will carry on“. And He is carrying on anyway. What are we doing? Our children are there, grandchildren are there. They are studying, working and doing so many things. What am I doing? Now I catch my head, “Oh what happened to him? How is he doing?” No end to it. We can’t do anything but unnecessarily we catch our head. This should shop. And contamination in the behavior should never be there. At least those who are already married, who are already finished something, they should be completely clean. I told you yesterday, these ladies who are forsaken or who are widows, they were addressed as ganga-svarup, like Ganges. That doesn’t mean that the ladies only are supposed to be Ganges. The purush also should be very very careful about it. Because we don’t understand Krishna, that’s why purity is completely away from us.

Anything we come across, we have our material law to apply to. And there we commit our mistake. Our material rods don’t work, that we knew already. And it has worked so far by Krishna’s mercy but it is not supposed to work. So one day vanaprastha situation is there or retirement is there or kicking out by the children. If you don’t follow renunciation according to vedic culture, Krishna will take you away. caatur varnyam mayaa srshtam. Everybody will have this situation to face. That they don’t follow. In the Western world varnashrama system is completely absent but we see so many divorces, so many marriages and again remarriages why? Because they are not following the behaviour pattern of Bhagavatam. So many difficulties are there. And they ask why, why this is happening? Because anti-bhagavatam situation is there. Srila Prabhupada wanted to correct this situation. So those who are following Prabhupada in the Western civilization also they are a bit better than the ordinary crowd, at least for some time. This is how this process is well-tested and purity has its own way. Why Grandfather was respected so much? Because he is the head of the family. And he didn’t run like a dog here and there. Our grandmother, I hardly saw them together. My grandfather and grand mother, they were really happy. They may fight some time but no mention about divorce. He was completely engaging himself in worship and she was cooking or whatever, never bothered about each other.

Please, material relationships should be seen through this eye of Kapila. Particularly this verse. Sharanam sharanyam must be there. Sharanyam means worth taking shelter of. Find out first the living entity who is worth taking shelter of, and then sharanam. These two things you should remember. But we don’t find sharanyam. Till that time we are kicked out. Because we don’t go to the sharanyam, we don’t go to the transcendence which is worth taking shelter of. So you go anywhere which is not worth taking shelter of, we are going to have the same kick. This we don’t understand. That’s why these material relationships, there is so many problems because they are not going to sharanyam. Sharanyam means worth taking shelter of. This is our mistake. From the beginning, if you do sharanyam, then your sharanam is quite fruitful. But from the beginning you don’t go to sharanyam. Here Devahuti gives only 2 words in this verse. And these 2 words are very important in our life. We don’t find sharanyam at all. We don’t find sharanyam and we are surrendered. The wrong sharanyam is there, then again the material kick is bound to be there. We are thinking, “Oh, I am completely surrendered and even then I am kicked”. People who serve in the bank, may be they are very surrendered to the manager. And the manager himself kicks out because the bank is not making profit. So no mistake from our side but still the kicking out is there because sharanyam is wrong. I don’t mean that we should not be surrendered to the office boss. We have to to some extent. But to that 8 hours only. It is not that 12 hours we are meditating on him. 12 hours meditation is sharanyam. And those who choose this correctly, then their position is secured.

So many examples are there. Prabhupada did not have anything at all. It is very clear, when he got down from the ship, he did not know whether to go East or West. No money at all. Except dhoti, kurta, no trousers also. nothing at all. His dress also not worth looking at. And he could achieve so much. Why because sharanyam was there. The surrender was complete surrender. And complete surrender to what? He was surrendered to Bhagavatam. And that’s why he had taken a vow that he will translate the whole thing before he dies. And if we kick that Bhagavatam out, then our sharanyam is gone. If we surrender to anti-bhagavatam people and situations, then our sharanyam is gone. We do our seva, whatever it is. But the rest of the time everybody should know that we are with Bhagavatam. They should see us, so we should not worry about our own praise or whatever but somebody should see that he is always with Bhagavatam. That will protect you. That will really really protect you. I was traveling to Ahmedabad, Bombay and other places. But whenever I am not doing anything, I am always writing something from Bhagavad-gita, Bhagavatam in my notebooks. So one devotee, whenever he saw me, he saw me with Bhagavatam. “You are sane”, he said. And he gave us some donation that time for our Dwaraka project. It was so difficult for us. We didn’t have a single penny there. But because of Bhagavatam Lakshmi came. And I boast that he liked me, that’s why he paid. No! Not because he liked me but he saw me with Bhagavatam. And I didn’t know that Bhagavatam is bringing money to me. I didn’t have any idea. The thing is, that unless Sharanam sharanyam is there, the kutaaram is not there. Axe is not there. And this Axe we have to understand very clearly you know. Samsaara taroh kutaaram. To cut the samsaara tree the axe is required. But in transcendence, actual material things are absent. That we have to understand. We have to get rid of samsaara. This axe is sharanam sharanyam. Correct surrender must be there, so automatically axe will be there. So we are situated in samsaara, and even then we are not attached. So this kutaaram in the proper material meaning, you must have thekutaaram to cut. But here we don’t cut actually, automatically it is cut. Bhakti pareshaanubhavo viraktir. As soon as the devotion is there, correct surrender is there, axe is already there. This is the sequence of this verse. Becausesharanam sharanyam is there, the kutaaram is there.

Once the kutaaram is there, then jignaasya word is there. Jignaasa means desire to know. Inquisitive to know that is jignaasa. Yesterday I quoted that verse – paraabhavas taavad abodha jaato yaavan na jignaasata aatma tattvam.jignaasa word is there. yaavan na jignaasa aatma tattvam. Till you are not inquisitive sincerely of the atma tattva, till that time you are defeated. And that’s why in the material relationships we are defeated because jignaasa atma tattvam is completely absent. So that’s why we are failures. But those who are attracted to this aatma tattva, they take it very easy. And they don’t worry too much about these things. And they go on that’s it. Somehow or the other we have to adjust. Prabhupada was always giving the example of waiting room. In waiting room so many people come together. Our mela is like a waiting room. You were here for 10 days and you are gone now today. We are here for a few years may be, coming and going. Who knows when anybody will just go away. So this is just a mela, very temporary mela we have. And in temporary mela we don’t get attached to temporary shelters.

Those who guide us correctly, we are surrendered to them. Please try to understand these things, so that it will never pass over our heads. It should go through the heads. Sharanam sharanyam is very important. We have to have the serious attraction to sharanyam – worth taking shelter of. And He is worth taking shelter of because He says Himself, “Brahma, it is I the Supreme Personality of Godhead….(2.9.33 translation).” Three times Prabhupada repeats the word Supreme Personality of Godhead in this translation. “Which you see now is also I, and whatever remains after also is I the Supreme Personality of Godhead“. This is sharanyam. Om purnamadah is sharanyam. Then tvam aadidevah, only one quality we discussed. aadidevah, again purushah puraanah. purusha is enjoyer. Puraanam means oldest. All these qualities are included in aadidevah. This is the point to be understood. Please try to your best and get attached to Srimad Bhagavatam. Hare Krishna !

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das

Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.

]]>http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/shelter-worthy-shelter-3/feed/0Take Shelter of the Worthy Shelter – 2http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/shelter-worthy-shelter-2/
http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/shelter-worthy-shelter-2/#respondWed, 06 Apr 2011 16:03:29 +0000http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/?p=658In yesterday’s offering we heard from Maharaj that we are not taking complete shelter of Krishna as we don’t appreciate His transcendental Supreme nature. Maharaj insisted how Srila Prabhupada has mercifully given us the scriptures in a simple and sublime manner, in English language so that everyone of us could understand Lord’s transcendental nature. So we need to do deep study of Srila Prabhupada’s books. Now let us continue to hear more nectar from Gurudev.

But because we don’t understand Krishna that’s why we don’t have the rati you know, that attraction. We are still not attracted to Krishna. That’s why we are beating about the bush. All these pages, they force us to get attracted to Krishna. Our nature particularly is bharatiya you know. We always keep something in the margin, that one comes first, then this. And our forefathers have shown us the way. They were doing everything but they were not doing anything, everything was happening. They will completely free from that. Now the complex situations are there. The families are breaking down, this and that. So many things are there. But it doesn’t matter. Human values don’t change. Social statusmay change here and there. Human values remain the same. That’s why in any condition of material life, these things are valuable. You have to have attraction to the transcendence. You understand it through the pages of Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. Not only that, sincere understanding must be there. What is it? Seriously inquisitive student realizes the Supreme Absolute Truth. Devotional service which is based on the foreground of full knowledge, combined with detachment from material atmosphere and which is fixed by the aural reception of vedanta shruti, is the only perfect method by which a seriously inquisitive student can realize the Absolute Truth. The serious inquisitiveness is absent. And that’s why out of our 24 hours a day, 23 and half goes in nonsense. And that 23 and half could be done in half-an-hour. (Maharaj laughs). That capacity we have. That’s why they have the VRS schemes you know, Volutary Retirement. Early retirement. You can retire early. They will give you something, some money will be there, your expenses somehow or other will pull off and you retire. Somehow or other, everywhere VRS is there. Either we are voluntarily retiring or force kicked. Those both are voluntary. You HAVE to retire. There is no way but you have to retire. Then that should be regarded as a special prerogative offered by Krishna, that you are not in the picture. You were telling now (pointing to a devotee) that you are somehow or other trying to organize so you can retire from these activities. That is best. Whatever years are there, you can do a deep study of the whole Bhagavatam and really learn so many things.

These only 2-3 verses we are speaking, how nice they are. Even if we don’t understand, if we only vibrate, even then it is quite nice. And we know so many things about Krishna being always under the roof of Krishna. Please drive away the lethargy. (Maharaj recites praayena alpaayusha verse). The thing is it is very easy to conquer the laziness, but we don’t really want to conquer. The intense desire is not there. And to have the intense desire, the practical thing has got to be seen. The day is bound to come when our eyes will not open, our ears will not work, we cannot hear anything, that is our condition also. But we are simply wasting time. Please, instead, we should get more attached to these spiritual things, before we get the same condition. what is it? turnam yateta anupatet na mrtyu yaavan. turnam meansimmediate. turnam yateta means, try immediately. na patet –before you fall downmrtyu yaavan – again you are facing another death. So before that death arrives please try to turn your notebooks, keep the things ready and you just go through them. Other maintenance activities are not really time consuming. It is just a few hours or few minutes many times. Just arrange something and everything will go on. Now we have ordered the iron (for construction). Iron will come, we will pay the money and that’s itm, forget about it. We are going on meditating, Iron, we should do this, it is 50000 bill has to be paid etc. When the time comes bill has to be paid. Iron is there, Iron man is there and they are working. What are we doing? We are not doing anything. We unnecessarily linger on. That is bad. These material activities we don’t know that they happen without our interference. We are not the cause of that. Iron was already, the iron ore was taken out of the mine, then it is melted, then it was converted into bars, what did we do? We didn’t do anything. Krishna supplied everything. We forget the original source and we just run after the iron. And this is our condition.

In all the material matters we cannot do anything unless He does. There is no way you can arrange without His mercy. Even then we put ourselves in the center. That is what this Narasingh Mehta shouts you know “hun karun hun karun ej ajnaata – I think I am doing; I am doing; this is the gross ignorance“. Then he gives the example. shakat no bhaarna shvaan thaane – the bullock cart is driven by the bullock and the dog comes in between the bullocks and he thinks that he is pulling the cart. We are like those dogs. I mean to say, that the material things don’t take long. If we are serving somewhere or if we are having some responsibility it may take a few hours. Otherwise it will take only 5 mins. For me it is a matter of only 5 mins. For me to think about these material things is just 5-10 mins. That’s why, I don’t know if you have seen me I am always writing some notebook or something. Have you seen me anytime, writing something like “You are managing this or He is managing that?” From the beginning since Dwaraka, I was sitting upstairs. Bhagavatam was nice. So many times I repeated. Dwaraka was best really, it was very peaceful. And that room is best you know. No disturbance at all. Please try to do something and invest your energy in this. That energy will be multiplied and it will spread everywhere. Only these 3-4 verses if you do, it will give insight into the nature of the Supreme Absolute Truth. And there are innumerable verses in Bhagavatam, Bhagavad-gita. Wherever you open it is all Krishna. And that’s why it is non-different from Krishna. There are only 2 things. One is the instructions about our contaminated behavior. The other thing is transcendence. That’s all, there is nothing else in the scriptures. Only 2 things we will find out. All the different episodes are there to correct our contaminated behavior. Behavior pattern, how it should be for a Krishna conscious person. And with that behavior how you can endeavor into the transcendence is the other part. There is nothing else at all. Behavior pattern once and for all, we have to correct ourselves. Since last so many years we are discussing Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. What are we discussing man? Even now, if we don’t touch the purity what are we discussing daily? Day in and day out we have to be on our guard. Nobody can guard you. We may suggest something. Sane guard must be there. The confidential thing of the purity is, that the more purity you have the more things will be arranged according to your will. Purity must be there. And we don’t have to do anything. He will arrange.

Krishna willing we will continue to hear more nectar from Gurudev in the subsequent mails.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das

Chant,

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna

Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama

Hare Hare

and be happy.

]]>http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/shelter-worthy-shelter-2/feed/0Take Shelter of the Worthy Shelter – 1http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/shelter-worthy-shelter-1/
http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/qualities/detachment/shelter-worthy-shelter-1/#respondWed, 06 Apr 2011 15:55:21 +0000http://www.spiritualquest.co.in/?p=659Today we will try to hear the transcription of a discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Rajkot on the verse 3.25.11 in 2008.

Devahuti continued: “I have taken shelter of Your lotus feet because You are the only person of whom to take shelter. You are the axe which can cut the tree of material existence. I therefore offer my obeisances unto You, who are the greatest of all transcendentalists, and I inquire from You as to the relationship between man and woman and between spirit and matter.”

Maharaj speaks:

This BG 11.38 you know, it has nice description of Krishna. The thing is we don’t appreciate the transcendental nature of the Lord and that’s why our surrender is always conditioned and incomplete. We don’t really understand. (Maharaj sings the verse (BG 11.38) tvam aadi devah purushah puraanas).

These three qualities are Krishna’s you know. tvam aadi-devah, purshah, puraanas. aadi-devah means original. we have aadi-purush – Original Person. Original means the first seed verse of Bhagavatam 2.9.33.

Beautiful translation. “Brahma, it is I, the Personality of Godhead, who was existing before the creation, when there was nothing but Myself. Nor was there the material nature, the cause of this creation. That which you see now is also I, the Personality of Godhead, and after annihilation what remains will also be I, the Personality of Godhead.”

This is His definition. And we don’t really relish. In all three stages He exists. That’s why He is known as Aadidev. And not only this, but His completeness is described in the invocation of Isopanishad. The verse which we recite in prayers.

“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.“

The thing is not only that He is Aadi-purush. Nothing could be taken from Him and nothing could be added to Him. We are.., in between, for a few years we are created. Really we don’t have any value ourselves. But because of our false ego, we think that we are all-in-all. All these 2-3 verses should force us to be very humble. If He contrives, then our position is null and void. Nothing is in our hand. Nothing we can create, nothing we can enjoy. Except to recognize the authority, the aadi-purush, except that, we cannot do anything, in this yoni particularly. All other yonis are completely in dark. All other species of existence, they are completely in dark. They don’t have any idea about the metaphysics side of the existence. But in this yoni only Krishna’s mercy, He has given some special understanding to us. In between the ignorance of the childhood and oldage we have some intelligence. In this yoni also, this boy (pointing to a 2 yrs old child) has no intelligence at all at the moment. When he gets to his age 15-16 years, then he will think, “My father is reading Bhagavad-gita or speaking on Bhagavatam” etc, and then something will come to him slowly. Then again, in old age we don’t know whether our consciousness remains pure or not. Again we will forget. Only the in-between years we are given the special possibility. How much it is important to understand this and try to surrender? These 2-3 verses we should carve in our mind. To understand adi-deva we must go to Bhagavatam. That is the Post Graduate study of Bhagavad-gita.

Bhagavad-gita has given the root, that He is the original person. So how ‘He is original’ is described in the pages of Bhagavatam. So this is how you should continously study and refer between Bhagavad-gita and Bhagavatam. The more you read, the more you will be able to refer because the same principles are described everywhere. It is not anything else. It is all one. So that’s why our continous thinking should be on these lines. Whereas our thinking is haywired. We don’t know what are we thinking really. As soon as you stop thinking about Krishna, means you will be thinking about the material matter. That is definite. Thinking will go on, that is the nature of the mind. Thinking never stops. so we are given special facility in this species of existence. And we are the most luckiest persons to come under the shelter of Prabhupada. So he has made everything clear. Because without his mercy we will never know all these verses. Even we hear the verses, we may enjoy the transcendental vibration. Apart from that we don’t understand anything else. But he has made it very clear. Really his Guru Maharaj Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati correctly advised him, “You please preach to these English people” and we are now English people (Maharaj laughs heartily). That time he thought that he may preach in the West. He might not have thought at that time that all our people also will be speaking English. We also understand more now in English than other language. Anyhow language doesn’t matter. But the understanding must be there. And this understanding means transcendental. The natural effect of this understanding is, complete detachment from the contamination of the matter. That is the result. Vairagya vidya. It is vidya you know. In vidya ‘vid’ word is there. vid means ‘to know‘. vidya means ‘that which is worth knowing‘. And He is vairagya vidya. Vairagya has got to be known. And in vairagya, we don’t understand why we have to cultivate vairagya. In vairagya also sometimes we are misled or misdirected. The correct direction is not there. That’s why Prabhupada gave the whole thing. He didn’t only tell us to create detachment. But he established the temple communities. Here we learn how to get detached and how to get attached to worshiping Krishna. His is a whole package. He didn’t give only philosophy. But practical application of the philosophy. Then again with the temple communities, he has given so many namahatta programs wherein vairagya vidya is spread. He said, “If you can’t come to the temple, don’t worry. You have your own program. 3-4 people come together, they chant and dance.”

Krishna willing, we will hear more nectar from Maharaj in the subsequent mail.

Thank you very much.

Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das

We are continuing with the transcription of a nectarean discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Sharjah on 10-7-1996. In our last offering we saw Maharaj’s beautiful explanation on the importance of studying Srila Prabhupada’s books. Today we will see how beautifully explains why we should worship Krishna.

Now the point is that why should we worship Krishna? So He describes it in Bhagavad-gita. There are 700 verses in Bhagavad-gita. But you may not have time to go through all the 700 verses. Or you may recite but you may not understand. You should study the verses and then recite. But even recitation is much better if you don’t have time to understand it. If you go on reciting it will give you the idea sometime somewhere. But to understand is the best thing, beautiful thing. And Prabhupada has toiled and moiled. He was telling devotees when he was alive that “Please relieve me of the managerial duties. I don’t want to manage anything. Because I have to meditate on each word.” It is a very difficult job. Because in Sanskrit. there are ten meanings for the same word. And if there is a bit of different word, then the meaning changes. So he had to meditate on these words and give the correct meaning. And he has done.

Now, if you cannot study all 700 verses, then you please study at least 4 verses. That is known as Catur-sloki Bhagavad-gita. In 4 verses, the whole philosophy of Bhagavad-gita is squeezed in. These 4 slokas are in 10th chapter. Sloka no., 8, 9, 10 and 11. These 4 slokasmust be studied. Out of these 4 slokas, in the first sloka, Krishna explains why should we worship Him. And this is the best weapon. Even if you go to the Indian population, they will ask the same thing. Why not this god, that god etc. Then Krishna’s answer you can give to them. And to your own mind, to convince, you have to have this argument. So that’s why the study of the sloka is very important. You select some slokas from Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita so that you may have some weapon to fight with. With your own mind you have to fight with. Forget about anybody else. Our mind is a devil sitting with us 24 hours. And the mind dictates, “do this, do that, don’t do this, don’t do that. You relax. You may be tired.” In the evening you will come. And the mind will tell, “The whole day you were running around here and there. Forget about this spiritual matters and just relax.” This is how the mind always gives you suitable arguments. So don’t hear the mind. You dictate your terms to the mind. And you force him to do this.

Now I will give you this verse and show you how to understand these verses. In English there are 4 lines. First line we will take (devotees repeat after Maharaj…)

If you take one line, there are 3 words. And our languages, Indian languages, there are so many sanskrit words. So we are familiar with this. Take first line, aham sarvasya prabhavo. for these three words, Prabhupada has given the translation. Please repeat. aham – I,sarvasya –of all. prabhavah – the source of generation. If you combine these three meanings, then you can see, Krishna is saying, “I am the source of all generation”. This is the qualification of Krishna. Nobody can claim, no demigods or demigoddess can claim that he or she is the source of all generation. Not even Lord Ram. Lord Ram also didn’t say that. Only Krishna can claim. And this qualification could be studied in detail in Srimad Bhagavatam where the creation is described in Kapila Muni’s chapter. We don’t have much time otherwise it is beautiful to understand the creation of the 24 elements in the material manifestation and how they come into existence and how they go back at the time of pralaya. It is a nice study. You please find out time and you will find out more about thisaham sarvasya prabhavo. This is how we study Bhagavad-gita first and then go to Bhagavatam. And it will elevate your spiritual platform. And not only that, this knowledge will give you the best health. If you understand these things, it is the eternal knowledge. Not for anything else, but for our own health we have to come to this.

Dhanvantari is the incarnation of Ayurvedic medicine. He has written one book. In that book, the first Sloka he is giving acyuta ananta govinda naamocchaarana beshajaad. Only uccaarana, only pronunciation of His names, is a great medicine. Everything comes from Krishna. He is the source of everything. Under Him everything works. mayyaadhyakshena prakrtih suyate sa caraacaram. If the whole prakrti behaves according to His instructions, then our body also should behave under His instruction. And moreover as body is the creation of Krishna, the curative forces of any disease is already inbuilt. There is no need of going to outside medicine. This is the great mistake we are commiting – to pour outside medicine. It is not needed. When the child is born, it is not born with the box of medicine. Otherwise he would have medicines with him. If Krishna wanted outside medicine, He would have supplied the box of medicine also. But He did not supply. It means that our body is completely self-sufficient. And that is our experience. The less medicine you put into your body, the more you are healthy. The more medicines you take, you will go away early. No Dubai then! (laughter).

This is the thing to be understood. This one sentence gives us the idea of the supremacy of Krishna. It fixes in our mind, that if the Supreme force is the Supreme one, then I must catch Him for my own good. There is no mistake. He Himself tells that I am the source of everything. And that is very correct. You know that verse in 7th chapter (verses 4 and 5),bhumir aaapo analo vaayuh andapareyam itas tvanyaam. In these two verses he has given the whole material manifestation, all that is coming from Krishna, that bhumi, aapah, water agni etc and then our jiva also. apareyam itas tvanyaam. This is how paraa prakrti. And there is another one aparaa prakrti. jiva bhutam mahaa baaho yayedam dhaaryate jagat. The jivas are also His energies. So Krishna should be the source, the Supreme source of everything. How is it? It is very nicely explained in the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam. I would request you please, to find time and go through the 3rd canto of SB. Next time Krishna willing, if we see each other again, we will spend some time to discuss about these things. But this is the main thing to be understood. But you please be sure that except Krishna nobody can claim this, that I am the source of everything.

We are continuing with the transcription of a nectarean discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Sharjah on 10-7-1996. In yesterday’s mail we saw Maharaj’s beautiful explanation on how this world is like a dharmashala. Today we will see how much Maharaj’s is insisting on the importance of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Apart from anything, apart from our ashram, apart from our family conditions, the temporary things are just hovering around us and they want to catch us anytime. We are like the frog. In Bhagavatam, a very nice example is given. The frog can lick the insects. It has a long tongue. It just extends the tongue and catches the insect from a far distance and lick the insect. And the snakes can eat the frog. So one frog was already in the jaw of the snake. Just it was a matter of seconds that it will be swallowed by the snake. But even then that frog who was in the jaw of the snake, saw the insect and immediately it took out (Maharaj and all the devotees laugh heartily at the example). That is our position. We are already caught in the jaw of the death. But I see dirhams and ‘boom, I snatch it’ (laughter). I don’t worry about whom does it belong. In order to stop this lunacy we have to come to somewhere and this is the right place. Prabhupada is very kind and merciful. He says, “Please don’t run after these temporary things. You are already caught up in the jaws of the snake of death.”

Then the questions comes that, many times people feel in our condition also that they have to find out a way for these things. But they don’t know what it is to be done. In this also there are so many pitfalls. One may come up to this point that he has to do something to solve the problems of life. And he will say, “Maharaj, now I understand everything you said. What you are telling is very correct.” Till I am talking he is very serious. Then he says, “Maharaj, I have now decided that I have to make spiritual progress and I promise you. You are very good. I have understood everything and now I am very serious.” And then next day he goes to Sai baba’s meeting! He knows that something has to be done. But there are so many groups, we are not the only one in this bazaar. In spiritual bazaar there are so many groups. Now again it is the test of our sanity to decide which place we have to go. This is where the instructions of the scripture come in. Without the scriptures we are lost. This is our eternal position. That we have to come to this, and this knowledge is only imparted by Srila Prabhupada. We are not fanatics, but unless you come to Prabhupada you cannot get the real knowledge. We are not Prabhupada fanatics. Prabhupada said, “We are not claiming that we are No.1 in the spiritual field.” So we were very happy that Prabhupada is very generous to other groups also. He says that we are not the only one in the spiritual field. And then he said,”But I must tell you that we are second to none.” (laughter). I told Prabhupada,”Prabhupada you are joking”. Prabhupada said,” No I am serious. We are second to none.” It is the case. There are so many in the spiritual bazaar. But they fall short of the goal. There is a nice verse (SB 3.23.56)

“Anyone whose work is not meant to elevate him to religious life, anyone whose religious ritualistic performances do not raise him to renunciation, and anyone situated in renunciation that does not lead him to devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, must be considered dead, although he is breathing.”

It is very easy to understand. na iha means in this planet. We are all in this planet. na iha karma. Those karmas are useless which will not take you to dharma. na iha karma dharmaaya. Those activities which will not direct you to the religiousity, they are useless. Then that dharma which doesn’t develop viraaga detachment, then that dharma is useless. And that viraaga which doesn’t take you to tirtha pada seva, to catch the lotus feet of Krishna, jivan api mrtho hi sah, we are breathing dead. We have to come to tirtha pada sevaayai. We have to catch the lotus feet of Krishna. Otherwise everything is useless. and that’s why we have to be resolved, we have to be determined to do these things. We are very determined to come to Dubai, Muscat, Abu dhabi or Bahrain. It is a very worshipable place in India. They say (if someone coming from Bahrain) “Jai Bahrain” (devotees break into thunderous laughter on Maharaj’s joke). I told, “hey, you are so ecstatic, what is the matter?” He says, “Bahrain, is a heavenly place”. I didn’t have any idea, but now I see, it is really heavenly planet (laughter). Much more enjoyable than heavenly planet (laughter). (Maharaj immediately changes into a serious tone) This ‘jai’ of anything we should stop. It is only ‘Jai’ Prabhupada and ‘Jai’ Krishna. Otherwise we are just misdirected and then it is a big doubt in our mind also, that why we should worship Krishna. We are coming from so much background, so many deities, so many demigods etc. We question why Prabhupada is insisting on Krishna? In a way, the western population was a clean slate. They did not know anything about these things. Prabhupada was giving them Krishna and they just took it. So it was very easy for Prabhupada to impress on their minds about Krishna. We are all Prabhupada’s but we undermine Prabhupada also many times thinking he is not correct. We don’t have any idea. (Maharaj speaks with a heavy emphasis) The man (Srila Prabhupada) who has written so much in 10 years that we will not be able to read it in life time, forget about understanding it! If you take just the translation and purport of one verse from Srimad Bhagavatam, you will require 1 month to understand each shloka and to read ‘in between’ particularly. And 18000 verses are there. So 18000 months you require. 18000 divided by 12, you have calculators and computers, find out how many years you require. It is nearly 1500 years. Where is the time?

We are very proud that we are working in Dubai, Sharjah, this and that. The work consumes so much of our time. Hardly we have may be 1 hr that too we have to steal from our life. During the day we don’t have much time. Please I would request you, think that you are spending 1 or 2 hours more to earn your dirhams and come to these literatures. These literatures will give you the whole idea.

Krishna willing, we will look at Maharaj’s explanation in the next mail on why should we worship Krishna.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das

Following is a transcription of a nectarean discourse given by H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Sharjah on 10-7-1996.

This whole material manifestation is a big dharmashala. We may stay normally in a dharmashala for 7 days. But in this dharmashala (this world) we may stay for 70 years. But time doesn’t matter. Dharmashala is dharmashala. Just like we are not attached to that dharmashala, the same attitude we should have here also. Instead we get attached. This is the result of our material body. Because of this bodily existence we get attached to it. We get attached to that extent that we do not want to leave. Day in and day out I think that my bank balance belongs to me. For the whole life time I am attached to my bank balance. Anybody wakes you up in the middle of the night and ask you, “Hey how much you have in the bank?”, immediately we will tell the exact amount. Anything else we will forget. We will forget even the name of our wife. But we will not forget the bank balance. That is our attitude. Then we don’t forget our house, we don’t forget our children, we don’t forget our parents. All these are different attachments. And why? Because we don’t know that this is a dharmashala. This is just a temporary mela. We are all now together, this is a fact. This is not a dream. But we know that we are only here for 1 hour and then we may be separated, never to meet again. Who knows? samyujyante viyujyante tataa kaalena dehinah – we come together and we get separated by kaala. Kaala separates us andmay be never to meet again. This idea never sinks in us. That is why our attachment is very strong. How to develop these ideas? These are eternal ideas. These are not sectarean. Our Sanatana Dharma is not sectarean. If you see America is ruled by Christians, whole Europe is ruled by Christians, Russia is also ruled by Christians. These countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia etc) are ruled by Mohammedans. Why India is not ruled by Hindus? Because our consciousness is very broad. We welcome anybody and everybody and we don’t mind tolerating other people. This is Sanatana Dharma attitude. We are very conscious that these are all temporary, whether we are Indian or anything else, one day we have to leave.

And then in the name of modern advancement, we have created so many things to kill ourselves. For eg,. Cars. If you go to India, you cannot breathe in Bombay. You cannot walk. So much dirty air is there. Polluted to that extent that even your clothes gets dirty. Here at least the cars are maintained and they are new. But in India three generations use the same car (laughter), and he is proud that this (car) belongs to my dada (laughter). Dada is gone, your father is also going but the car is still there. He says, “No, No, my son will also use”. So fourth generations again. I don’t know how much pollution it will throw into the air! And again diesel. If the municipal vehicle comes in front of you, Oh God! It pours the whole black smoke in front of you. This is our advancement! And then so many diseases! These are the results of the modern development. We are ashamed to buy the wheat and grind ourselves. Really ashamed. So we want to buy the readymade flour coming from Canada. I don’t know what they have ground there. Is it wheat or not we don’t know. But it is written in the cover that it is beautiful wheat flour. And we buy it. The maida they add makes it very thin. It will not be digested at all. And then we develop so many diseases. We have no control over eating. No control over anything in our life. This is a very serious problem of the human existence. We understand that we cannot escape these things. So we have to find out a way to escape. This is the main reason we have come together here.

So don’t feel that you are new or you are just acquainted with Krishna consciousness. No, nobody is new. Basically we are all Krishna conscious. What is that nice sentence? jivera svarupa haya krishnera nitya dasa. It doesn’t say hindu svarupa haya krishnera nitya dasa. No. it says jivera svarupa haya, that is the broad outlook of our philosophy. This philosophy, this culture is applicable to everybody. Who doesn’t have to take birth? The Christians don’t fall from the sky. The Mohammedans don’t grow out of the ground. Everybody has to take birth. And those who are born, they have to die. In between birth and death everybody has to become old. You cannot claim that, “I am in Dubai, I have million dirhams in my bank and I don’t want to get old.” Yamaraj is not Indian government officer that we can bribe him. You have to have the old age. You have to have the diseases, repeated diseases. All these things when we consider practically, then there is no outlet anywhere. We want to escape out of this. But falsely what we do? If we have white hairs, you know first few white hairs. We want to hide it. We will apply oil and comb the hair and cover it so that nobody can see the white hair. We are very much ashamed of old age. And then when we are not able to hide them, we cut them. And if we can’t cut them, then we put coal and powder (dye) on it. You die before your death (laughter). And why this whole endeavor? It is just a decoration of the dead body. The body is dying. And we are very proud of our birthdays. 60th birthday, 70th birthday and that person is worshiped! We do not know that 60 years already we have died. It is the deathday, it is not the birthday. But we call it birthday. Falsely we are under the illusion, “How nice, I am 75 years old”. It is not the thing to be enjoyed. We are just near the grave, one leg is already in the grave and one leg is outside. This is the main thing to be understood. And this forces us to come to the Bhagavad-gita and congregations like this. This forces us to come to the saner attitude of the human existence.

We will continue to hear the nectarean discourse by Maharaj in the next mail, Krishna willing.

This mail is in continuation of the transcription series “Nothing Belongs to Us” – based on the Bhagavatam class given by our beloved spiritual master HDG Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia in 1992. In previous offerings we saw how Gurudev enlightened us on

The importance of being prepared for death.

How even our own body is not under our control – but is working purely by the mercy of Lord.

How even though we are in precarious situation, we foolishly want to enjoy and are not even ready to accept the help of acaryas who are trying to deliver us.

The importance of studying scriptures and about the 5 items which are explained in Gita.

After the class Gurudev inquired if devotees have any questions and in response to one of the devotee’s question on how chanting of Mahamantra will help sense control, Maharaj said, “One thing as I described earlier in the class regarding the verse from Srimad Bhagavata Mahatmya, ‘dehe asthi maamsa rudhire abhimatim tyajasva‘, in that verse, the purport is that we must leave the thought that this body (which is nothing but a bag bones, muscles, blood etc) is ours. And to leave the attachment is not a easy job. And to leave the attachment means to control the senses. Our eyes are to be controlled. Our tongue is to be controlled. Our ears are to be controlled. All senses are to be controlled. And forceful control will not do.

“One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.“

It is very nicely described in Bhagavad Gita verse 3.6. karmendriyaani samyamya – We cannot force our karma indriya, the senses to be under control. And if we do that, ya aaste manasaa smaran, and we keep on thinking about the same sense gratificatory activities by our mind, then mithyaacaarah sa ucyate – it is completely hypocrisy. You know, a guru might go to the forest and sit in meditation. But that is complete mityaachaar. He cannot control his senses by just going to the forest. Instead, yas tv indriyaani manasaa niyamyaarabhate ‘rjuna – tumeans but ; indriyaani means our senses and manasaa means through our mind ; We have to understand these things. And niyamya means – you have to regulate your life; karmendriyaih karma yogam – karmedndriya means by our senses organs; karma yoga – we have to follow our karma yoga; asaktah – without getting attachment and that is the most important thing in our life. And this chanting of Mahamantra

is the incarnation of the Lord in our life. If you want to see the Lord just chant loudly and hear with your ears, automatically all your senses will be under control. This is the by-product of chanting. Do you follow me ? We need not do separate endeavor to control our mind, control our senses etc, we don’t require to understand the different stages also. Just

(Children in the class recite the above verse and Gurudev appreciates them very much) This is real education. Vyasadev is repeating “harer naama” thrice to insist that it is very important. Only and only Hari Naam is required. It is very important. There is no other way. No other way. No other way at all. This is the only thing needed and all other things will follow. As soon as you start chanting, your life should change. If it doesn’t change, then your chanting is bogus. You are a hypocrite. Don’t be a hypocrite. Try to chant with full heart and then I guarantee you that your life will change. And if there is some inebriety and if you don’t understand, then go through Prabhupada’s books daily for one hour. If you do that, I guarantee you that by the time I come back next, you will be a Mahatma and I will be like a “pygmy” in front of you. Really, it depends upon the sincerity. I don’t have horns on my head that I know so many verses and that I know the philosophy etc. Nothing. I studied. It was hard labour. There is hard labour even now. Don’t stop studying and then only we can renew. Once you wear this kurta, you might wash it tomorrow. But later you cannot claim that you have washed it once and so you will not wash it for the rest of life. No. Every time you wear it, the kurta becomes dirty. Similarly every day our mind becomes dirty. So we should study everyday. Srila Prabhupada ki Jai !”

This mail is in continuation of the transcription series “Nothing Belongs to Us” – based on the Bhagavatam class given by our beloved spiritual master HDG Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia in 1992. In previous offerings we could see how Gurudev enlightened us on

The importance of being prepared for death.

How even our own body is not under our control – but is working purely by the mercy of Lord.

How even though we are in precarious situation, we foolishly want to enjoy and are not even ready to accept the help of acaryas who are trying to deliver us.

The importance of studying scriptures and about the 5 items which are explained in Gita.

We heard from Maharaj about the first two (Ishvara and jiva) out of the five items in previous offering. Now let us continue to hear more nectar from Maharaj.

“There is no other sect on this planet which describes God, the form of Ishvara. Christianity says -“Love God”. But they don’t know what God is and how to love. Who is God is also not known to them. Then how to love? If you have to love someone you should know about the person to love. But they don’t know the form of the person. But our scriptures give us details about Ishvara and Jiva. The third thing that is being very nicely described is the planet (Prakrti) on which we are staying. Nature of this planet, how it is formed, from where it is coming, what are its movements, how it is guided, who is guiding it and why is He guiding it, how long is its life – everything is minutely described in the pages of Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.

The next item, fourth item that is decribed is eternal time. Eternal time is the weapon by which the Lord is controlling all of us. Many times we foolishly say – “I don’t care for the Lord. I don’t think He is here.” But the man who says like that is ageing. The time has effect on everyone including that person. tasye tasye jano nunam – All the living entities indeed don’t know the great strength of time. We were 2 or 3 year old child. Then we were in youth and now in 30s and 40s and later we are heading towards the end of the body. Who is doing this? It is kaala – “eternal time” and you don’t want to change. You want to be young always. But we can’t do it. Who likes to be old? The most hated thing is old age. When our hair starts growing grey, we try to cut it here and there. Then eventually we have to shave off the whole head as whole thing becomes white. By rubbing your hair with some chemical or cutting it, can you stop old age? This is how we hate old age but it still comes because of the force of time.

kaala manovibhalino vaayor iva ghanaa vali. Vaayu means air and ghanaavali means mass of clouds. The mass of clouds hanging in the sky, don’t know that they are driven by the force of wind. Similarly we are also driven unknowingly, continuously by the force of time. And this kaala is very nicely described in the pages of Bhagavad Gita. And the fifth thing described in Gita is karma – our own activities. Because we are controlled by kaala and because we are in contact with prakrti, we have to perform our activities. There is no way that we can stop these activities. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita verse 3.5

“Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.”

We cannot be silent even for a single moment. Always we are doing some work. Even while resting, heart is pumping blood continuously. The activities of the body are going on continuously. When you are at home, you would have seen. One moment we go upstairs. Then come down, enter kitchen, go here and there, try to clear the table, see the garden etc. Then when we don’t hear the instructions of the Lord, we perform the most abominable actions. Some of them are very sinful activities. Some activities don’t produce any material reaction at all. Such activities are also nicely described in Gita. Before we go to those verses, I would like all of you to by-heart these four verses from Bhagavad Gita – 10th Chapters verses 8,9,10 an 11. These are known as chaturshloki Bhagavad Gita. From these 4 verse the whole Bhagavad Gita is born. The essence of Gita is summarised in these four verses. All of you should learn these verses. One thing we should remember is that we should take great interest in these matters. If we don’t take interest, then we will destroy the younger generation.

We were in Holland last month and met some Indian people whose ancestors had gone from Bihar in India to Surinam in South Africa. Surinam is Dutch colony and so they came to Holland. There are thousands of Indian families and they speak Hindi. But you will not be able to recognise the children as Indians – They are so much degraded after two generations. Then they came to London and saw our activities in the temple and requested us to open a center in Holland. Now fortunately we have been able to open a center in Holland and atleast 25 families have become vegetarians. They are taking interest and so many nice programs are going on. These activities help our younger generation. By telling them they won’t take interest. You must show them by your practice. They may not follow it until when we are in this planet. But after we leave they will remember how father and mother were behaving. If you love your children, then this is the way to love. If you keep money for them, they will not be safe. Who knows when the value of money will go down? There was a bank BCC in Western countries. People had deposited millions of pounds in it and one day the bank was bankrupt and was closed. People were struggling hard to get even 10% of what they had deposited. This is result of money. So money will not make our children happy. But these scriptures will make them happy. Habit of coming to the temple and listening Krishna katha and reading the books will keep them safe. So if you really love your children, please be serious about these things. Hare Krishna.”

This mail is in continuation of the transcription series “Nothing Belongs to Us” – based on the Bhagavatam class given by our beloved spiritual master HDG Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Kaula Lumpur, Malaysia in 1992. In previous postings we could see how Gurudev enlightened us on

The importance of being preapred for death

How even our own body is not under our control – but is working purely by the mercy of Lord.

How even though we are in precarious situation, we foolishly want to enjoy and are not even ready to accept the help of acaryas who are trying to deliver us.

Now let us continue to hear more nectar from Maharaj,

“There is Krishna and He attracts you and that is why His name is Krishna – The Supreme Attractive force. He is the supreme animating force in our body. He is the supreme intelligent force in our relationships. Without that force, I will not be able to talk to you and you will not be able to hear me without that force. As soon as that Supreme force, withdraws His energy from this material body, this body completely becomes useless. And as soon as body becomes useless, we don’t even keep it for an hour. We say that this dead body needs to be cremated or buried and we finish it off. That is the value of the body. If this is the condition, then we should accept on our own that the ignorant person was trying to taste the honey. Honey is sweet – no doubt. Honey here refers to material enjoyments. We are busy in enjoying our lives. But we don’t know that we are in a precarious condition. Anytime the root will be eaten by the rats and we will fall down. Any time our life will come to an end and we will meet Yamaraj. If we remember this, then we will never leave the scriptures and try to understand it very carefully. This is our position and with this we try to go to Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Bhagavad Gita is most wonderful scripture and this was liked by everybody in the world. Now with Srila Prabhupada’s translations, word-to-words and purports, it is all the more respected by everyone and this book is the text book for religious studies in all the universities in America and so many other countries.

It is our culture, Vedic culture coming to us from innumerable years. You take Christianity. It is only 2000 years old. Mohammed came about 1000 years ago. Buddhism 2500 years ago. All other sects are only 200 or 300 years ago. Lord Ram was in this planet million years ago and before Him, this Vedic culture is flowing in parampara from Krishna Bhagavan to the present gurus. This is the beauty of our own culture. How can you dream to leave this Ganges and go to other religions? We should not. But because we don’t know

The value of our culture,

That our body is not the all in all in our life,

That our house and property does not belong to us,

The money and bank balance does not belong to us,

The wife, children and whole show does not belong to us.

We are attracted to these things and to hide our own folly, we do so many things and claim that I am correct. In the end, kaala – the eternal time, forces your body to become old. The hair becomes grey. Once the hair goes grey, that is the notice from the Lord that now our time is up and we have to get ready. If we don’t get ready, then death will automatically come and pick us up and Yamaraj will ask – “Did you act according to the notice? Now come with me.” Please remember these facts daily and when you remember these facts, you will not forget Bhagavad Gita. When you take Bhagavad Gita in your hand, there are 5 important things mentioned in this scriptures. The first thing nicely dealt in this book is Ishvara. Ishvara means controller. As I told you, we are not the controllers. We are puny controllers. We try to be the controller. Then as we are not the controllers and are trying to act like controller, the real controller gets upset. Then He sends you sickness and some material disturbances. These are checking points to remind us that we are not the controller and that He is the controller. If we still don’t come to our senses, then our life shortens and we face untimely death. This is His control and He controls us through the time factor and that is why, He is known as Ishvara. We are mini ishvaras. But He is the Supreme Ishvara – Parameshwara. This way He is very nicely described in the pages of Bhagavad Gita. One verse gives 10 characteristics of Supreme Lord. 10th Chapter verse 12 in Gita.

Arjuna said: “You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the ultimate abode, the purest, the Absolute Truth. You are the eternal, transcendental, original person, the unborn, the greatest.”

We may be controlling the house, job etc. But Ishvara Krishna is the Supreme Controller. Like this there are so many verses in Gita about Parameshwara Krishna.

The second thing that is described here is about jiva. We saw “jiva” word somewhere in Malaya language on the road. What was it? “Pandu chalna jiva salaama” – “Drive slowly and you will survive.” It should be “Read Bhagavad Gita and jiva salaama”. (Gurudev and devotees laugh) What is it in Malay for “Read Gita” ? (Devotees reply and then Gurudev says) Baachaa Gita – Jiv Salaam. Everywhere this should be printed. “Baachaa Gita – Jiv Salaam”. Otherwise you are in danger. Doesn’t matter how much yo do. Even if you do little bit, Lord is satisfied. He is very kind. If you take one step towards the Lord, He will take 10 steps. He is so very kind. He wants all the jivas back. Because we are his children. He wants His children to come back to Him. He doesn’t want us to be in miserable condition. But our own activities are forcing us to be in miserable condition and this is how jiva is very nicely discussed in the pages of Gita. So first thing described is Ishvara and then about jivas – Who are we? Why have we come here? How should we behave here? After our end where will we go? What are the activities there? Everything in minute details is described in the pages of Bhagavad Gita and more minute details are given in Srimad Bhagavatam and these are the beauty of these scriptures.”

We are all forever indebted to Jagat Guru Srila Prabhupada for revealing these beautiful scriptures in a sublime manner for the welfare of all man-kind and our spiritual master for constantly hammering us the importance of studying Srila Prabhupada’s books. If not for such great acharyas, we would have never touched these scriptures in this lifetime. On this most auspicious occasion of the appearance of His Divine Grace Prabhupada, let us offer our satakoti dandavat pranams to him, study his books and try to strictly abide by his instructions.